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Dodgers Notes: Muncy, Alexander, Turner, Lux

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Let’s check in on the best team in the National League…

  • Expectations are that the Dodgers will activate infielder Max Muncy from the injured list Friday, Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times relays. Muncy hasn’t played since he suffered a fractured right wrist Aug. 28, but it obviously wasn’t an overly serious injury. The 29-year-old is the Dodgers’ go-to option at second base, though his injury helped open the door for the promotion of highly touted prospect Gavin Lux, who has performed well over a small sample of plate appearances thus far. But Muncy’s among the Dodgers’ best hitters, evidenced by his .253/.375/.525 line with 33 home runs in 534 PA, and they’ll be happy to welcome him back with a couple weeks left before the playoffs begin.
  • Left-handed reliever Scott Alexander underwent surgery to address a nerve issue in his pitching hand, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register tweets. The 30-year-old, who hasn’t pitched since the first week of June, wasn’t going to return this season anyway. It’s unclear, though, how long it will take him to recover from this procedure. Alexander has thrown just 17 1/3 innings this year on account of forearm issues. While Alexander was among the game’s foremost southpaw relievers as recently as 2017, when he was with the Royals, his two years with the Dodgers have been somewhat disappointing. He owns a 3.67 ERA/3.88 FIP with 7.02 K/9 and 3.67 BB/9 across 83 1/3 innings as a Dodger, though he has posted an eye-popping 68.5 percent groundball rate in that span.
  • More from Plunkett, who reports that third baseman Justin Turner is day-to-day with a mild ankle sprain. That’s a relief for Los Angeles, which has gone without Turner’s services since last Saturday. The 34-year-old went without a hit in two at-bats then, but has otherwise enjoyed yet another outstanding season. Turner’s a .291/.370/.514 hitter with 27 home runs and 3.4 fWAR in 538 trips to the plate.
  • Dodgers director of amateur scouting Billy Gasparino recently reflected on the drafting of Lux in a chat with Kyle Glaser of Baseball America. Although Lux just won Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year honors, it was seen as something of a reach when the Dodgers chose the former Wisconsin high schooler 20th overall in the 2016 draft. He impressed Dodgers scouts throughout that year, though, and when the draft rolled around, they took him over an unidentified college pitcher who was also high on their board. “His overall talent level and character assessments were so high, we just felt like, a little bit of liking him just a little bit more than the college pitcher and some of just draft strategy of taking the bat there and getting pitching later,” Gasparino said. The 21-year-old Lux has since surpassed the organization’s expectations, according to Gasparino.

NL Injury Notes: Kimbrel, Verdugo, Renfroe, Taijuan

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Injured Cubs closer Craig Kimbrel is progressing toward a return, but that won’t come until at least the weekend, Jesse Rogers of ESPNChicago.com reports. The big-money in-season signing has been on the injured list with right elbow inflammation since Sept. 1, making him eligible to come back as early as Thursday. Kimbrel’s IL placement came on the heels of yet another disappointing performance, in which he yielded three earned runs on two hits (including a homer) in two-thirds of an inning. He’s one of the greatest closers ever, which is why the Cubs guaranteed him $43MM over three years, yet Kimbrel hasn’t resembled his dominant self this season. While the 31-year-old has converted 13 of 15 save opportunities, he owns a bloated 5.68 ERA with 12.32 K/9 against 5.21 BB/9, and has given up just under three HRs per nine across 19 innings of work.

  • The Dodgers clinched their seventh straight NL West title Tuesday, but they’re also dealing with some unwelcome news: Outfielder Alex Verdugo isn’t nearing a return, per Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times. An oblique strain forced the rookie to the IL back on Aug. 6, but he suffered a back injury on a rehab assignment and will sit out “for at least a few days,” Castillo writes. Verdugo has been a valuable contributor this year, having slashed .294/.342/.475 with 2.2 fWAR in 377 plate appearances, but the loaded Dodgers have carried on fine without him thus far.
  • Padres manager Andy Green isn’t willing to guarantee that banged up outfielder Hunter Renfroe will play again this season, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune relays. For now, Renfroe’s going to rest on account of right elbow and ankle problems. “Hunter has battled through a lot this second half,” said Green, who added, “There have been a number of days he was unavailable and we’ve managed not to talk about it.” We covered Renfroe’s significant second-half struggles earlier Tuesday, though it now seems possible health problems have been a major cause for his summer slump.
  • Injuries have prevented Diamondbacks right-hander Taijuan Walker from taking a big league mound since April 2018, but he said Tuesday (via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic) he’s still hoping to make an appearance this year. The 27-year-old sat out the majority of 2018 after undergoing Tommy John surgery and has dealt with shoulder troubles this season. However, he threw his first bullpen session in four months Tuesday and came out unscathed. Walker’s absence is among the reasons the Diamondbacks’ starting staff has been shaky this year, though the club has nonetheless stayed in the National League wild-card race.

Injury Notes: Tauchman, Moose, Laureano, Kelly

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Mike Tauchman departed during the fourth inning of Sunday night’s game with what the Yankees described as left calf tightness.  The outfielder suffered the injury while fielding a Brock Holt single, though he told reporters (including James Wagner of the New York Times) that he had recently been dealing with a sore calf and thought he was beyond the problem after a pair of pain-free games.  Tauchman will undergo an MRI on Monday in New York to determine the extent of the issue.

One of many unsung heroes who have stepped up in the wake of a cavalcade of Yankees injuries, Tauchman hit his 13th homer of the season Sunday, improving his slash line to .277/.361/.504 (128 wRC+) over 296 plate appearances.  After two seasons as a spare-parts outfielder with the Rockies, Tauchman has broken out in a major way, which would make it all the more unfortunate if a potential injured list stint were to cut into his availability for the postseason roster.  If Tauchman does have to miss time, the Yankees still have Clint Frazier and Cameron Maybin (himself just returned from a wrist injury) as left field options, and Giancarlo Stanton looms as a potential late-season reinforcement at some point in September.

More on other injury situations from around the game…

  • “I can’t take a swing without pain,” Mike Moustakas told reporters (including JR Radcliffe of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) about the deep wrist bruise that has limited him to a non-hitting role.  “I can hit flips, I can hit BP, and there’s still pain there, but that’s not what’s concerning. It’s when I swing and miss or I check swing and I have to hold my bat.”  The Brewers third baseman sat out seven games within a recent nine-game stretch while trying to recover, and has appeared in each of the club’s last two games but only as a defensive replacement.  While he is happy to help in any way possible while recovering, Moustakas is understandably eager to more fully contribute, and hopes he is getting close to feeling normal at the plate.  “When I’m in an at-bat facing a major league pitcher, you don’t want to be thinking about how bad your hand hurts when you’re trying to hit,” Moustakas said.  “You want to have a clear mind and go out there able to compete. I wasn’t able to do that the last week or so.“
  • As Ramon Laureano works his way back to full health after suffering a stress reaction in his right shin, Athletics manager Bob Melvin told reporters (including Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle) that Laureano will likely play in only two of every three games.  “This probably isn’t going to be an everyday proposition for him for a while,” Melvin said.  Laureano didn’t go through a rehab assignment before returning from his five-week stint on the IL, and left Saturday’s game after suffering a cramp in his right leg.
  • Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly has been battling a lower-body injury, manager Dave Roberts told J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group and other reporters.  The problem is “not a red flag for us,” Roberts said, though he noted that Kelly’s delivery is still being somewhat altered by the injury.  Kelly pitched on Saturday after sitting out the Dodgers’ previous five games.  After signing a three-year, $25MM free agent deal with Los Angeles over the winter, Kelly badly struggled over his first two-plus months but then stabilized things, posting a 2.00 ERA over his last 27 innings (28 outings).

NL West Injury Notes: Muncy, Ray, Padres, Dickerson

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Max Muncy’s wrist fracture wasn’t thought to be an overly serious injury, and the Dodgers infielder is now aiming to be back on the field on Friday when Los Angeles begins a series against the Mets.  As Muncy told Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register (Twitter links) and other reporters, he felt “better than I expected” after taking regular swings in the batting cage today.  Needless to say, the Dodgers will be careful with their slugger’s progress, as there’s no urgency to get Muncy back in immediate fashion since the team is running away with the NL West.  Still, it’s an excellent sign that Muncy has seemingly avoided what initially looked like a season-threatening injury.

More from around the division…

  • A blister issue forced Robbie Ray to leave during the fifth inning of the Diamondbacks’ win over the Reds on Friday, though he told media (including Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic) that the removal was somewhat precautionary, as the blister hadn’t actually formed.  As a result, Ray feels he’ll be able to make his next scheduled start.  Ray didn’t want to leave the game but “at that point I’ve got to look at the bigger picture.  It’s tough, but you understand it’s the right thing to do.”  With the red-hot D’Backs on a run of 11 wins in their last 12 games, Ray (now the rotation’s veteran stalwart in the wake of the Zack Greinke trade) certainly wants to remain able to contribute to the team’s push for a wild card berth.
  • Franchy Cordero has suffered another setback while rehabbing a quad injury, Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes.  Padres manager Andy Green told Sanders and other media members that Cordero’s bothersome left leg “just doesn’t feel as explosive as the other leg,” and that Cordero has “been slowed down to hopefully ramp him up again in a couple days, but I think we know where the clock is on this season. It’s ticking. I don’t know if he or isn’t going to get back.”  Elbow and quad problems have limited Cordero to only nine games in 2019, and since Green said that the club’s priority is to get Cordero healthy for the offseason, the outfielder likely won’t be brought back for a few token appearances if there’s any hint he might not be 100 percent.
  • In more promising Padres health news, Green is hopeful that both Garrett Richards and Jacob Nix will be able to get onto a Major League mound before the 2019 campaign is out.  Richards is working his way back from Tommy John surgery, while Nix has been working through a small UCL tear in an attempt to avoid his own TJ procedure.
  • Alex Dickerson has missed the Giants’ last four games due to a right oblique injury, and the outfielder will miss more time after receiving a cortisone shot, manager Bruce Bochy told reporters (including Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area).  There isn’t yet indication that Dickerson could miss the season’s final few weeks, though this is the second time in Dickerson’s brief San Francisco tenure that he has been slowed by a right oblique injury — he spent two weeks on the IL in August due to a strain.  When Dickerson has been able to play, he has something of a revelation, hitting .308/.374/.579 with six homers over 147 plate appearances in a Giants uniform.  This has put him into the mix for regular outfield duty in 2020, though as Bochy noted, the club would like to get some more evaluation time on Dickerson before the season is out.

Rich Hill To Start For Dodgers On Thursday

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Dodgers southpaw Rich Hill laid out his plan for returning from a flexor tendon strain to reporters including Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). He’ll start on Thursday and plan to make four total regular-season outings in preparation for the postseason.

If the plan sounds somewhat optimistic, that’s probably somewhat by design. Hill says that he’s going to prepare as if he can fully ramp up down the stretch, without any rehab assignment. If adjustments are needed, they can be considered at the time.

Skipper Dave Roberts confirmed the general plan. He noted that Hill is likely only to throw two innings or thirty pitches in his preliminary outing, as Dodger Talk’s David Vassegh tweets. The ageless southpaw has been sidelined since late June, so he’s obviously in need of a gradual progression in terms of game action.

All things considered, this is excellent news for the powerhouse Dodgers. Hill was throwing brilliantly before he was injured. He could well make for a major addition to the postseason roster, even if he’s ultimately limited in how deep he can work.

This is also a notable development for the coming offseason market. Hill intends to keep playing and hopes to remain with the Dodgers, Andy McCullough of The Athletic reports as part of an excellent profile of the unique left-hander (subscription link). Hill’s health status will surely play a role in the way offseason talks unfold.

This news comes as the team deals with newfound struggles from fellow southpaw Hyun-Jin Ryu. The Dodgers will skip his next scheduled start, as DiGiovanna further tweets, in a bid to get the veteran some rest. On the positive side, it doesn’t seem as if there’s any health issue of note to worry about.

NHL’s San Jose Sharks Hire Former Dodgers GM Ned Colletti

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In case last night’s report that Carlos Correa has hired Bobby Flay’s agent wasn’t strange enough for you — fear not, cravers of odd baseball news! The NHL’s San Jose Sharks announced today that they’ve hired former Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti as a professional scout. Sharks general manager Doug Wilson offered the following statement on the matter:

Ned has an extensive background working in professional sports and talent evaluation and he will bring a fresh perspective to our organization’s evaluation process. This was a unique opportunity to add someone of Ned’s experience to our staff.

Colletti has never worked in hockey before but does join the Sharks with more than three decades of experience working in a Major League front office — including 18 seasons as an assistant general manager or general manager of a Major League team. Clearly, the Sharks are convinced enough of Colletti’s hockey acumen to make a decidedly outside-the-box hire.

[Related: Pro Hockey Rumors’ coverage of the Sharks hiring Ned Colletti]

Colletti isn’t the only notable executive to completely change sports in recent years, but it seems he’ll have a more direct say in player evaluation than Paul DePodesta took on when joining the NFL’s Cleveland Browns as their Chief Strategy Officer in early 2016. (DePodesta, per the Browns, is “tasked with implementing systems and processes to strengthen the Browns organization and decision making” in his role with the team.)

Since being replaced by the Dodgers following the 2014 season, Colletti has been rumored to be a part of the GM searches for both the Diamondbacks and the Orioles, but he’s never signed on as an executive with another MLB organization. Colletti served as an adviser to Dodgers president Stan Kasten after being removed as GM and has also served as a television analyst with Sportsnet Los Angeles.

Dodgers Health Updates: Verdugo, Muncy, Hill, May

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With the NL West sewn up, the Dodgers have two primary goals down the stretch: secure home-field advantage throughout the postseason and get to full health. Here are the latest updates from manager Dave Roberts on a few key players, as MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick was among those to cover on Twitter:

  • Back soreness has halted the rehab work of outfielder Alex Verdugo. He had seemingly been nearing a return from an oblique injury. Now, per Roberts, Verdugo may head back to the club’s Arizona facility to receive further treatment. Verdugo had emerged as an important part of the Los Angeles outfield mix, even commanding time against left-handed pitching. On the year, he owns a strong .294/.342/.475 batting line with a dozen long balls. Verdugo has also graded as a plus defender and is capable of lining up anywhere in the outfield. It’s completely unclear at this point what kind of timeline to anticipate for the new malady.
  • In more promising news, infielder Max Muncy is participating in baseball activities. He has already taken groundballs and will soon resume swinging. That represents fast progress for a player who recently suffered a fractured wrist. The club’s optimism regarding the severity of the injury has thus far been justified. Needless to say, the Dodgers will be focused on ensuring Muncy’s readiness for the postseason. The 29-year-old is carrying a big .253/.375/.525 batting line on the year. His left-handed bat is all the more important given Verdugo’s uncertainty.
  • Southpaw Rich Hill is prepared to take the bump against live batters later this week, which could set the stage for a return as soon as next week. The plan remains for Hill to come back as a reliever. It seems the flexor tendon strain that sidelined the veteran hurler has recovered fully, though it remains to be seen what sort of form he’ll show upon his return. Hill almost certainly won’t be at full strength in the postseason, but he will have a few weeks to build up innings. He’ll surely play an interesting role in the L.A. playoff effort, with his showing also destined to impact his forthcoming free agency. The 39-year-old was outstanding (2.55 ERA in 53 innings) before going down with the injury.
  • As for prized young hurler Dustin May, it seems awfully promising that he was able to throw a simulated inning today. The team still isn’t sure what will come next for the right-hander, who was drilled by a comebacker over the weekend but seems to have avoided serious injury. As in the above cases, the Dodgers will proceed with caution — all the more so given that the 21-year-old is considered a major future asset.

NL Notes: Eaton, May, Maeda, Weaver

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Nationals outfielder Adam Eaton exited today’s game, a 7-3 loss to the Mets, after the second inning. Following the defeat, Manager Dave Martinez told Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post that he’s concerned that the veteran Eaton may be dealing with a hamstring issue, after experiencing “back of the knee pain”(link). Eaton has been sent for MRI testing.

It’s inopportune timing for the Nats and troublesome altogether for Eaton. Though the Nats hold a comfortable 3.5-game lead for the primary NL Wild Card spot, a September hamstring injury could preclude Eaton from postseason usage–especially considering the way injuries have dogged the outfielder since his arrival in D.C. via a 2016 trade with the White Sox. That deal, which saw Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, and Dane Dunning go to the South Side from Washington, was largely debrided as an overpay for the Nationals at the time and, with distance, has only come to seem even more lopsided in Chicago’s favor. Though Eaton provided the Pale Hose with a cumulative 13.5 WAR from 2014-2016, he has struggled to stay on the field with the Nationals, with his 2019 representing his high watermark in terms of games played at just 127. Eaton holds a strong .288/.377/.436 line on the year and was coming off of an August that saw him hit .329 with 5 HRs and 26 runs scored in 23 games.

More items of note from around the National League…

  • Redhaired Dodgers rookie Dustin May was nailed by a vicious line drive off the bat of Arizona’s Jake Lamb on Sunday, but, fortunately, appears to have avoided serious injury. Manager Dave Roberts told MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick that May is dealing with some neck stiffness but “feels fine” after his intimate encounter with a fast-moving baseball (Twitter link). Meanwhile, Gurnick also relays that pitcher Kenta Maeda will be performing in a bullpen capacity in tonight’s game with the Rockies–which is the same capacity he will be expected to function in moving forward (link). This is a similar usage timeline for Maeda as we saw in 2018, when the Japanese vet moved into a high-leverage relief role beginning on Aug. 14 of that year. In 2019, Maeda’s fourth season with the Dodgers, the righty has logged a 4.11 ERA, 3.96 FIP, and 9.72 K/9 across 26 starts.
  • With Zack Greinke wearing Astros colors these days, the Diamondbacks will likely be looking to youngster Luke Weaver to lead their pitching staff in coming seasons. After arriving in Phoenix along with catcher Carson Kelly in the deal that sent Paul Goldschmidt to St. Louis, the 26-year-old Weaver flummoxed opposing hitters in his first 11 starts as a D’Back this year. His 9.82 K/9 rate and 2.02 BB/9 rate pairing were fuel for a solid 3.03 ERA over 62.1 innings, but many feared the worst when the righty went down with an elbow injury in May. Since being diagnosed with a mild right flexor pronator strain and a mild right UCL sprain, Weaver has been working on a rehab regimen that, on Monday, called for him to throw a 21-pitch simulated game before his team’s game with the Padres. MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert passes word from manager Torey Luvollo regarding that sim game, with the skipper saying that Weaver’s pitches “had life” and that this episode in Weaver’s rehab represents “extremely encouraging news”. The team is expected to determine next steps depending on how the pitcher feels following today’s exercise.

Dodgers Promote Gavin Lux

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Sept. 2: The move is official. Lux’s contract has been selected from Oklahoma City, with Tyler White (whose season is over) moving to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot. The Dodgers also announced that they’ve reinstated lefty Julio Urias from the 60-day injured list and recalled right-hander Josh Sborz from Triple-A.

Sept. 1: The Dodgers are calling up star prospect Gavin Lux, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times).  Lux will make his MLB debut tomorrow, starting at second base for the NL West leaders.

Max Muncy’s wrist fracture could have been the catalyst for the beginning of Lux’s time with the Dodgers, as Roberts said at the time that the club would “be more aggressive” with its September promotions if Muncy’s injury proved to be serious.  While Muncy is only expected to miss around two weeks with his relatively minor fracture, that was still enough for L.A. to decide that more depth was required at second base.

Of course, it’s not as if Lux himself didn’t do everything he could to force the Dodgers’ hand.  Lux has been nothing short of spectacular at Triple-A Oklahoma City this season, hitting .392/.478/.719 with 13 homers over 232 plate appearances.  Even accounting for the extremely hitter-friendly conditions of the Pacific Coast League, the numbers were still astounding, and far from out of nowhere given Lux’s already-strong prospect status.

Selected as the 20th overall pick of the 2016 draft, Lux appeared on top-100 prospect lists (ranked 40th by Baseball America, 70th by MLB.com) prior to this season and zoomed up the various rankings as he continued to shred Triple-A pitching — the updated midseason ratings from Fangraphs, MLB.com, and BA all list Lux as the ninth-best prospect in baseball.  As cited by the Fangraphs and MLB.com scouting reports, Lux’s hitting potential has been unlocked in the minors (even prior to 2019) by a number of swing changes, including more lift in his swing, as well as incorporating his hands and legs into his action at the plate.

Lux has played the majority of his games as a shortstop, but he also saw a lot of action at second base in preparation for fit into the lineup alongside stalwart Corey Seager in Los Angeles.  It’s safe to assume that Lux will get the bulk of time down the stretch, as the Dodgers have the NL West long since wrapped up, and are now merely making adjustments for the playoffs.  It certainly isn’t out of the question that Lux could force his way onto the postseason roster if he plays well in September, giving the Dodgers an embarrassment of depth once Muncy returns to their already-stacked roster.

Seager, Cody Bellinger, Justin Turner, and rookie catcher Will Smith look to be the only true everyday players on a Dodgers team that prizes versatility.  A.J. Pollock is more or less the regular center fielder and Muncy will presumbly return to regular duty at second or first base when he returns.  Beyond those names, Los Angeles boasts the likes of Chris Taylor, Joc Pederson, Enrique Hernandez, Matt Beaty, David Freese, the currently-injured Alex Verdugo, Jedd Gyorko, Kristopher Negron, and now Lux to rotate into the starting lineup and as late-game subs to maximize their chances in various matchups.

Beyond just what Lux can do this season, of course, he also represents a major building block for the future.  The Dodgers resisted all trade offers for Lux both this season and in past years, and it’s fair to guess that L.A. has him penciled in at second base for years to come.

Dodgers’ Scott Alexander, Tyler White Won’t Return This Year

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A pair of injured Dodgers have been ruled out to return this season, manager Dave Roberts told reporters including Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times, who reports that neither Tyler White nor Scott Alexander will suit up for the Dodgers in September.

White landed on the injured list more than two weeks ago owing to a right trapezius strain. The 28-year-old joined the Dodgers in a late-July trade when the Astros could no longer justify holding onto him and his .612 OPS. Unfortunately, his performance was even worse in the brief showing he got as a Dodger. By Fangraphs’ WAR, White has been one of the least valuable hitters in baseball this year, though he won’t have a chance to reverse his fortune over the last month of the season.

Alexander, meanwhile, has tallied only 17 1/3 innings pitched this year thanks to injuries and his deployment largely as a lefty-specialist. He excelled in that role last season—his first with the Dodgers—though his performance has taken a hit in 2019. He’s managed to strike out just 4.9 batters per nine innings, which is made that much worse when compared to the 3.6 walks he concedes per nine innings. He has been on the injured list since mid-June while dealing with forearm inflammation. He’s already spent 60 days on the shelf, so he is eligible to be activated, though evidently he isn’t ready to return to game action.

Neither White nor Alexander seemed likely to crack the Dodgers postseason roster, and either could be a candidate to be designated for assignment. Alexander will be eligible for arbitration for the first time this offseason, while White remains in his pre-arb years. Even with years of team control, neither has made an especially strong case to remain on the team beyond this season, though it wouldn’t be costly to keep the duo around in hopes that they can return to form. Alexander, in particular, has a strong track record as a groundball-inducing lefty, though the Dodgers’ need in that department has been filled by Adam Kolarek.

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